The iconic Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez gives us an intimate perspective on a secret world. This portrait of Spain’s King Philip IV reveals the inner court. We see the Infanta Margarita Theresa at center. She’s surrounded with a collection of servants.
Sisters dwell in distinct developmental stages for The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit. This famous John Singer Sargent painting holds viewers rapt in a sisterhood spell. Four year old Julia faces us. As the youngest, she most wants and needs our attention.
Mute painter Hendrick Avercamp sings an icy opera with Frozen River. His expressions range from delight to death in this painting. Without a word spoken, Avercamp tells us a complex emotional story. It’s a dramedy.
A complex woman with a vision, Louise Bourgeois turned anxiety into art. Her work provoked audiences. She channeled emotions into her pieces to jolt us awake. Good or bad, Bourgeois makes us feel things. That’s the gift of her sculptures, installations, paintings, and drawings.
Foreboding waves crash The Undercliff painting. This makes literal and figurative sense. After all, Richard Parkes Bonington painted it one month before dying. He was twenty five years old with TB. It was 1828 and tuberculosis was known as the “robber of youth” at the time.
The painting EOW on Her Blue Eiderdown II presents us with seductive obscurity. Frank Auerbach was a true romantic and it shows here. This painting may seem blunt at first. But the piece demands a deeper look.